Attributes

Physical Description

A poppin is a small creature that presents itself as a single coloured plush toy to deceive prey. The coat looks and feels as though it were made of velvet, but if enough pressure is applied anything can separate the closely-knit hairs of the coat in order to reach the actual body underneath. The coat of each poppin is fashioned to look like an animal or species, certain hairs being longer than others to form nubby limbs or more complex ones such as wings, although these fake limbs are functionally useless beyond adding to their disguise. The eyes add to the facade as they look to be glassy; following prey around without ever blinking as poppins possess a third eyelid, allowing them to keep their eyes open for extended periods of time.

Underneath the coat is a dark grey serpentine being, their flexible figure allowing them to fold in on themselves and contort in order to assume a convincing form, however the strain and stretching from this results in the appearance of white stretch marks covering the majority of the body. Two pairs of spindly appendages protrude from both sides of the poppin, lacking any real muscle mass and ending with three sharp claws, these legs are often tucked against the body and hidden within the velvety coat.

Behavior

Poppins are known for praying upon children as well as being extremely patient predators. This comes in handy when grooming themselves into a suitable disguise or waiting for a chance to strike vulnerable and unaware prey when they’re at their plumpest. After a poppin has groomed its coat it will move to a location where it is likely to be noticed by a child or parent for adoption, or will sneak into a home with a child and hide among their toys.

Overtime they will listen and observe the child and its family, mimicking certain words and phrases and associating them with events such as ‘Want to play outside?’ resulting in the child and their parents moving outside. Once they have developed a basic understanding of certain words and what they entail they will attempt to lure children into desolate locations or into large groups of poppins so that they may be overwhelmed and consumed. The entire time the poppin has never moved and will likely be carried by the child as it feeds them instructions, their actual limbs emerging from the coat once they deem the situation to be safe enough to begin the assault. A poppin might attack a child on its lonesome if it is incited by hunger pains or if the child is too rough whilst handling it, this is a risky decision as poppins and their attacks are weak and being caught in the act is almost certain death for them.

Poppins do their best to maintain their disguise when being played with, keeping in shape whilst staying as rigid and motionless as they possibly can. If something prods their glassy eyes, suspecting them to be fake as one would, the poppin will either blink and feign having ever done so in the hopes the provoker hadn’t noticed or will attack and flee.

Subspecies

Jumbo Poppin: Jumbo poppins are excessively large poppins with thicker coats, this makes it harder for them to maneuver themselves as swiftly as their smaller kin but makes it easier to overwhelm or crush a child beneath their hulking size and weight, as well as making them more resistant to any unintentional abuse they may receive from their owners. They have been known to possess more limbs than the average four the typical poppin has to help them haul their bodies along.

Special

Grease Up: Poppins can excrete large amounts of muddy looking grease so that it appears on their coats, this makes them appear to be dirty and abandoned as well as slippery for easier escapes from predators.

Trivia

• If a poppin is careless and does not groom their coat frequently it can grow so long that their extended limbs cannot reach the ground, rendering it immobile and doomed to starve if a fellow poppin doesn’t come to its aid.

• The origins of poppins is unknown, their first reported appearances came from a number of distant planets all around the same time. Some suspect based off of their appearances and the ability to mimic basic speech that they were intended to be a step up from domestically-aimed robot toys children would own that created a faux display of life to emphasise the importance of taking proper care of their “toy” in order to teach responsibility at a young age, but with actual consequences for failing to do so. Why anyone would want this is questionable.

• While this entry talks about the most common target of poppin attacks, poppins are willing to attack and kill adults and pets should the chance arise.

• During the time spent with a child if a poppin has observed the child being verbally comforted as it cries it will repeat similar words and phrases whilst attacking it, whether this is in an attempt to silence the child or comfort it is unknown.